It's A Family Thing
by ExtremeSaucicity
Summary: The Dawsons and the Moons decide to get together to have a big family dinner. Let the awkward ensue.


A/N: Oh, my God, Sam. I'm so sorry. I don't even know what this is, exactly. This probably isn't what you had in mind. Like, at all. So I know you liked TV Mike and Mimi Moon but I just didn't have the heart to write them that way. And I totally, totally understand if you hate my own, personal spin on them.

But, uh... I hope it's not absolutely horrid? Be honest if it is. It's okay if you hate it. Like, you won't hurt my feelings. I've been flamed before in the past. It's one of those things that make me stronger, you know? (Not in the A&A fandom—but that's... a different story.)

But I did sort of base them off of Miss-Rainy-Skies' version of the Moons in Damage Control, which, honestly, is where my canon for them is, anyway. And she helped me with a bit here and there, so props to her!

* * *

Silence. Complete silence as the four adults alternated between maintaining uncomfortable eye contact and awkward eye-darting around a small, square table. The Moons on one side, the Dawsons on the other. This went on for far too long and the two women stared each other down from across the table, mentally agreeing to break the silence.

Too bad Mike Moon got to the matter at hand first.

"So, uh, Lester, why exactly did you call us here?" he coughed, raising an eyebrow.

Penny and Lester quickly looked at each other and hesitated. "Well..." they trailed off together awkwardly.

Slightly alarmed, Mimi gave a small gasp. "Is this about the kids? Is something wrong? Did something happen?" she murmured worriedly.

"Oh, no!" Penny quickly reassured with an animated shake of her head, her brown hair whipping around her face. "They're fine. They're great, actually!" she laughed excitedly. At her husband's stern look, she turned her laugh into a cough. "Sorry," she mumbled, remembering that this was, in fact, a very serious meeting.

Mimi released a sigh of relief and Mike's eyebrows furrowed. "Then forgive me for being rude, but why exactly are we sitting around this table, staring at each other awkwardly?" he deadpanned. The blonde woman rolled her eyes and lightly elbowed Mike in the gut. He gave a small grunt of displeasure and quickly tacked on, "Just kidding."

"Well..." the Dawsons repeated with a small wince, looking at each other again as they recalled the events of last night.

* * *

"Hey, sweetheart!" Penny called as she walked into Sonic Boom, a bright smile on her face.

Lester looked up and grinned back. "Hey. Ready for dinner?" He walked out from behind the counter and kissed her on the temple.

Penny nodded enthusiastically. "You didn't tell Ally, yet, right? I wanted it to be a surprise that I came back from my conference a few hours early," she sang, practically bouncing up and down excitedly.

He laughed and shook his head, feeling a rush of love and relief now that his wife was back from her latest expedition. "She's upstairs. And don't worry, I didn't say a word," he promised.

They chattered about their day as they made their way up the stairs. The store was pretty slow, experiencing small bursts of business throughout the day and Penny's conference to Africa was mundane and rather routine. But she did find out that she got to stay home for a few extra months and she couldn't wait to tell Ally during dinner.

The Dawsons reached the top of the stairs and Lester opened the door to the practice room, calling their daughter's name excitedly.

Walking in on Austin and Ally in the practice room was a common occurrence.

Walking in on Austin and Ally _locking lips_ was an entirely different matter.

"What is going on...?"

The two teens immediately broke apart and Ally shoved Austin away so hard, he nearly stumbled over.

"Whoa!" The blond crashed against the piano keys and quickly righted himself as everyone winced at the sudden smashing of musical notes. He chose not to say a word and looked at his shoes as he twiddled his thumbs awkwardly.

Ally's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "Dad!" the brunette cried in horror, cheeks turning the shameful color of vermillion. And then her eyes landed on her mother, clutching at her cheeks in giddy excitement. "Mom!" she cried, but this time, she sounded surprised and happy.

"Oh ho, what an awesome Dawson family reunion!" Austin chuckled nervously, eyes darting around the room like a rabid raccoon's. "I'm gonna go and let you guys have some family time!" He turned to Ally and waved frantically. "Bye, Als, see ya later! Or never! I don't want your dad killing me. Okay, bye!" he rambled crazily, making a dash for the door.

But manners kicked in at the last minute and he stopped right in front of Lester's horrified stare and Penny's look of delighted glee.

"Nice seeing you again, Mrs. Dawson," the boy mumbled under his breath before turning to Lester. "And, uh, for what it's worth, Mr. Dawson, don't be too hard on Ally. Um, it was mostly me, anyway," he winced with a guilty expression.

"You're a teenaged boy," he pointed out dryly, "with hormones."

"Right." Austin winced again. "Sorry, sir, for, uh, having hormones." And then he turned around to Ally. "Bye, Ally," he murmured, sounding soft and dazed. But at the loud clearing of Lester's throat, he gulped and continued with his speedy exit.

Lester rolled his eyes and stepped to the side, letting Austin slip through. Penny shouted a dreamy good bye at him as he left, most likely still fawning over her daughter's love life.

He turned to glare at his daughter, who had been chewing on her hair the entire time. "Ally?" Lester breathed, his tone of voice clearly expecting an explanation.

She flinched at the sound of her name. "I can explain!" The blurting of her words caused her to spit out her hair as well. "Austin got bit by a snake! On the lips! And—and, okay, I've got nothin'," she mumbled with a sigh. She winced and deflated shamefully in front of her parents as she sunk onto the piano bench.

* * *

Mimi let loose a shriek of excitement. "_Our_ Austin? And _your_ Ally?" she gushed, eyes widening.

"Oh my gosh! I know, right?" Penny giggled, bouncing in her seat and clapping her hands in delight. "You've raised _such_ a good son! And so handsome, as well!"

Mimi waved her off with a dismissive hand. "I've always wanted a daughter, and yours is _such_ a sweetheart! So intelligent and well-mannered!" she complimented. "Not to mention beautiful!"

Penny clapped her hands over her heart and positively melted from the compliments. "That is so sweet and nice of you to say," she said with all of the heartfelt sincerity she could muster.

Lester and Mike stared at their wives with matching deadpan expressions. They finally rolled their eyes and turned to each other, exasperated with the fangirling.

"Look, Austin's a good kid," Lester sighed, "but they're _teenagers_... and... they were kissing. And..." he trailed off, looking mildly sick. "She's my baby girl!" he blurted.

Mike furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes, and kissing does lead to baby-making..." he muttered tiredly.

"Oh, stop it!" the ladies huffed, looking at their respective husbands.

"Lester, you're right. They _are_ teenagers and it's perfectly normal for them to do things such as kissing."

"Um..."

"Mike! You really think that's the only thing on their minds? _Especially_ sweet, little Ally? And do you really think they're _that_ irresponsible?"

"Uh..."

"Well?" the ladies snapped simultaneously.

Mike sighed and crossed his arms. "Well, then what do you suppose we do? Mimi's right, Ally's a lovely young girl, but I wasn't even aware that they were dating or were even interested in each other. And now they're kissing all of a sudden?" He shook his head. "We have to make sure they're not moving too fast."

Lester nodded emphatically. "Agreed! I trust my daughter and I know your son's a good kid, but we need to figure out what's going on between them before I feel comfortable leaving them alone in the practice room again."

Mike's jaw dropped a bit. "Wait, you don't think... that this has been going on for_ longer_ than last night, do you?"

"Who knows?!" the music store owner cried hysterically, throwing his hands up in the air. "Who knows how long this has been going on?!"

Mimi and Penny exchanged worried glances at that.

"Oh, dear," the brunette murmured. "I don't understand... Why hasn't Ally said anything? We talk about everything together..."

Mimi reached over and patted her on the arm consolingly. "At least you guys are lucky enough to have your girl talk," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. "Austin just covers his ears and runs out of the room if I ever try to have an emotional or serious conversation with him," she said dryly.

Penny giggled a bit at that. "Such a boy," she chuckled.

Mimi nodded. "Whenever Ally's over for dinner, she helps me in the kitchen and we get in a decent amount of girl talk."

The brunette grinned. "Austin's such a good eater. Ally and I always have to cook double whatever we're making just to feed him. She warned me the first time I had to cook for him, but oh my goodness! His appetite is so impressive!" she laughed good-naturedly.

The blonde joined in on Penny's laughter. "He eats more than Mike and I combined!"

Penny giggled and started to continue their conversation when she heard the men clear their throats. "Oops," she uttered sheepishly. "Sorry, honey," she apologized lightly as she turned to look at Lester.

"Right," Mimi coughed into her fist, focusing on the matter at hand. "Where were we?" she asked seriously, lacing her fingers together and placing them on the table.

"What should we do about Austin and Ally?" Mike reiterated.

Penny gave an excited look and her eyes darted over to meet Mimi's. It was as if they shared a certain sort of telepathy because Mimi's expression soon matched the explorer's. But then quickly remembering their husbands, the looks of excitement turned into looks of guilt-ridden pain, complete with lip-biting.

Mike and Lester sighed resignedly.

"Oh, go ahead," Lester muttered tiredly as he gestured with a hand.

"_Do you think they're in love?!_" Penny was the first to blurt out.

"_Are we going to be young grandmothers?!_" Mimi cried excitedly.

"That's the dream!" they chorused as they high-fived.

"Oh, God," Lester mumbled, rubbing his temples. He shuddered and paled at the thought of grandbabies this early on in the game.

Mike shook his head. "We're gonna be here a while, aren't we?" he deadpanned. He looked around to see the women giggling and planning their kids' future wedding and to Lester who looked to be moments away from having a mental breakdown.

"Fantastic," he muttered to himself, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on.

* * *

A few days had passed by and as much as it killed them, Austin and Ally had agreed to take a break from hanging out, mostly to keep their parents from freaking out or jumping to conclusions due to the kiss.

"Ally, could you come down here, sweetheart?" Penny called innocently one evening, after most of the commotion caused by the kiss had died down. "Your dad and I need to talk to you."

Moments later, the brunette teen bounded down the stairs. "Yeah, Mom?" she asked curiously about halfway down them. She looked over the banister and when she spotted the Moon family standing in the middle of her living room, she nearly slipped and fell on the bottom step.

Could you blame the girl? She'd just been up in her room, working on her homework in an attempt to ignore the dreadful feeling of missing her best friend. It wasn't like she was expecting to encounter his entire family in her living room minutes later.

"Whaa—!" the girl sputtered, quickly catching herself with the handrail.

"Ally, Ally, are you okay?" Austin shouted, rushing over to her. A hand flew to her waist and the other supported him against the handrail.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" she laughed shakily, straightening herself into an upright position from her momentary lack of grace. She bit her bottom lip nervously as she stared into his eyes. "I'm fine," she repeated softly.

Austin chuckled and his grip on her waist tightened. "Hey, you," he whispered, grinning widely at her. His eyes lit up as they took in every detail of the face he'd been missing over the past few days.

"Hey," she murmured back breathlessly, matching his grin mile for mile.

And then he pulled her in by the waist, wrapping his other arm around her back, squeezing tightly. "Missed you," he murmured quietly, feeling her thin arms wrap around him, returning the hug just tightly.

A round of coughing could be heard from the living room and Ally shoved Austin off of her for the second time in the span of a few, short days. The guilty teens spun around to face the adults.

Penny was tearing up from the reunion. Mimi was grinning with absolute delight. Lester looked mildly horrified. And Mike looked like he didn't even want to acknowledge what had just gone on.

"Sorry," they quickly chorused.

Ally looked at Austin and then to the adults, fear evident in her large brown eyes. "Are... are we in trouble?" she whispered in a quivering voice. She sounded scared and Austin glanced at her worriedly.

At this, all of the adults' faces softened.

"Oh no, sweetheart," Penny said reassuringly, rushing over and hugging her daughter. "Not at all. I can't even remember the last time you were in trouble," she added with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"Wish we could say the same about Austin," Mike muttered under his breath. His wife promptly elbowed him in the side.

Ally shot her mom a timid smile and looked around the room. "Then what is this all about?" she asked curiously.

Mimi stepped up and smiled at the teens. "We just wanted to have a big family dinner. You two are best friends so we decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea if we," she paused, gesturing between herself and the Dawsons, "became best friends, as well."

Austin and Ally's eyes widened.

"Oh, that's not necessary!" Ally chuckled uneasily.

"Pfft! Dad hates making new friends!" Austin added.

"I know," Mimi muttered, sounding exasperated. "He ruins every game night," she added darkly, glaring at her husband.

Mike frowned at that. "It's not my fault you know so many sore losers," he pointed out.

"You're the sore winner, hon," Mimi shot back dryly as she raised an eyebrow challengingly.

"Anyway!" Mike quickly deflected as he clapped his hands together. "C'mon, kids, let's get this awkward dinner started," he said, gesturing with a hand for them to follow.

"This way!" Lester called, leading the pack into the dining room.

Austin and Ally groaned in unison and began marching toward the Dawsons' dining room, even though it felt more like they were marching toward their doom. They turned to one another apologetically. _Sorry_, they mouthed quietly. They blinked in surprise, but then smiled softly at their moment of synchronicity.

* * *

Dinner had started and so far, just as Mike had predicted, it was sufficiently awkward.

The adults had tried to start multiple conversations, but the teens had either grunted in reply or given polite, but detached answers to every attempt of small talk.

The two sullen, embarrassed teens refused to make eye contact with anyone, not the adults, and not even with each other, as they both chose to stare listlessly into their plates instead. Ally picked at her food dejectedly and Austin alternated between grumbling in annoyance and shoveling food down his throat at a scarily fast pace.

Ally looked up and sighed, reaching over and placing a hand over Austin's closed fist on the table. He stopped in surprise and met her gaze, blinking rapidly.

"Wha—?" he sounded around the mouthful of spaghetti and meatballs.

"Slow down or you'll choke on your food," she reprimanded gently.

Austin blushed but nodded obediently. "Okay," he mumbled with an embarrassed pout after he swallowed his current mouthful of noodles.

She giggled a bit at him, eyes sparking back to life for a brief moment. But then she remembered her current company and reluctantly pulled her hand away from Austin's. He watched her place her hand back in her lap with a sad stare, instantly missing her touch. But he eventually went back to eating, although at a much slower pace than before.

Mimi watched the whole exchange with a mixed expression of shock and awe. "I have never once, ever, gotten Austin to stop inhaling his food at the speed of light," she said, tones of astonishment and admiration coloring her voice.

Ally looked up and over to Mimi, pink coloring her cheeks. Austin sputtered on his food and quickly brought a fist to pound at his chest until he stopped choking on his food.

"Mom!" he whined, clearly embarrassed.

"No, no, your mom has a point," Mike chimed in. "How come you always listen to Ally and not even your own parents? We were always afraid you were going die during dinner one of these days. You know, choking on your mother's cooking."

"Ha ha, Dad," Austin grumbled sarcastically, glaring at his father.

Mike smirked and shrugged. "It's true, though," he said, his smirk widening.

Ally looked at Mike, unable to shake the thought about how closely Austin resembled his father when he smirked. She'd made note of their identical smirks in the past, but it was still a hard observation to shake. _Yep, definitely got his smirk from his father..._

Austin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, staring at his parents suspiciously. "Okay, seriously. Something's up, isn't it? Mrs. Dawson's been in town for weeks! And neither of you cared about getting to know Ally's family before." He quickly turned to the Dawsons. "No offense, Mr. Dawson, Mrs. Dawson," he added sincerely, before turning back to his parents. "So why the sudden big get together _now?_" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Wait, sweetheart—"

"Oh, dear..."

"He's on to us..."

"Don't ruin this for your mother. She's trying to make friends."

Ally sighed, putting down her fork. "This is about the kiss, isn't it?" she mumbled, pink spreading across her cheeks.

An awkward moment of silence passed by.

The blond teenager groaned and irritably dragged his hands through his hair multiple times, making it stick up all over when he was done. "This is so stupid! It was just a kiss. I don't see the big deal!"

Penny and Mimi gasped, while Lester fumed silently. Mike paused from taking another bite of his dinner.

"How can you say that?" Mimi hissed at her son, before looking at Ally worriedly.

Austin winced. "Wait, Mom, that's not what I meant."

"Austin," Mike frowned. "We raised you better than that. Apologize to Ally." He turned to Lester. "Sorry your daughter fell for this insensitive brute."

The teen boy looked horrified and turned to Ally with wide, apologetic eyes. "Ally, you know that's—"

"We should just tell them," she sighed tiredly with a roll of her eyes.

He relaxed with a sigh, grateful that Ally hadn't misinterpreted his words. But when her suggestion sank in, his eyebrows shot up. "You sure?" he murmured, sounding uncertain.

Ally nodded. "Now's as good a time as any," she said with a wry smile.

The entire room fell silent as the jaws of all the adults dropped. Clearly, they were all jumping to conclusions, but before the teens could clarify, the room was quickly filled with crazy situations shouted at random.

"Are you guys in love?! I_ love_ love!"

"Was there baby-making?!"

"I'm going to be a grandmother?!"

"Austin! Are you going to do the_ 'responsible'_ thing here?!" And then Mike gestured toward his ring finger none too subtly.

He faced palmed, partly out of necessity and partly out of wanting to hide his red face. "Oh my God," Austin mumbled, sounding pained. "Daaad," he whined.

"Mike!" Mimi hissed, on behalf of her son.

"What?" Mike snapped. "Getting a girl pregnant is the best reason to marry. Everybody knows that."

Mimi elbowed her husband again. She leaned over and looked at Ally. "Ignore him, sweetheart. Love is the best reason to marry," she supplied, nodding wisely.

Ally looked horrified as her cheeks turned an impressive shade of red. "Do you—do you guys have, like, _zero_ trust in us?" she shouted, sounding appalled and offended.

The adults scoffed as they looked over to their respective spouses. "You're hormonal teenagers!" they all shouted together.

Austin looked up and met Ally's horrified stare. "Well, that's a clear 'no'," he deadpanned with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

"No, no, there's been no baby-making!" Ally sputtered. She turned to her father and shook her head emphatically, repeatedly making giant X's with her hands. "_None!_ No baby-making! None, whatsoever! I promise, Dad."

"Oh, thank God," Lester cried in relief, near tears.

Penny looked confused. "Then what's going on?"

"_We're dating!_" the teens bellowed, red in the face. The words exploded out of them, as if they were no longer able to hold it the secret.

Another round of silence echoed around the table.

Within moments, Mimi and Penny broke the silence by shrieking in absolute excitement. "Oh my God!" they squealed, high-fiving each other. "I knew it!" And then the ladies began the early planning stages of a wedding for the decade.

"I'm not paying for any of that," Mike called loudly, but was ignored by the ladies.

Lester breathed out an immense sigh of relief. "Oh thank God, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack..."

Austin and Ally groaned and threw their heads against the back of their chairs.

Penny paused from her gushing fangirling and turned to her daughter. "Wait, sweetheart. Why didn't you tell us about you and Austin?"

"Um..." Ally trailed off uncertainly, eyes darting from her mother's look of hurt to her father's look of curiosity.

"Clearly, your daughter was ashamed to be seen with _her_ son," Mike sighed dramatically, jerking a thumb over to his wife.

Mimi turned to her husband. "Mike, really? He's half yours, too, you know," she deadpanned.

"Do we_ really_ know that, though?" he whispered behind a hand, squinting at his wife.

The blonde rolled her eyes at her husband and turned to her son. "But seriously, honey, you know how much we care about Ally! Why did you hide your relationship from us?"

Austin sighed deeply and scrubbed his face with his hands before gesturing around the table, at the adults, with his hands. "See this? This is why we decided to keep things a secret," he replied dryly, raising an eyebrow.

At the varying levels of confusion and insult appearing over their parents' expressions, the teens rolled their eyes.

"Mom," Ally said gently. "You're trying to plan my wedding. I'm sixteen." She turned to her father. "Dad, you need to stop freaking out. You _like_ Austin, remember? He's a nice guy and you know he's a good kid."

Austin turned to his mother. "Mom, it is _way_ too early to think about grandkids, alright?" And then he turned to his father. "Dad..." and then he trailed off, suddenly blanking. "Huh. I actually don't have anything for you..."

"It's because I'm the perfect parent," Mike said smugly.

"Oh, that's right!" Austin laughed heartily, before abruptly dying down and slipping into a deadpan expression. "You're not nearly as funny as you think you are."

Mike smirked at him. "Touché, son, touché."

And then it clicked with the Misters and the Mrs.

"Ohh..." the adults all chorused, nodding understandingly.

"See?" Ally sighed. "Now you understand why we were keeping everything a secret. At least, for a little while."

"Well..." Lester sighed, "how long has this been going on?"

"Um, not very long. Barely over two months, maybe?" Ally shrugged, turning to look at Austin.

He nodded. "It's been nine weeks, to be exact," he smirked.

She bit her lip. "I can't believe you've been keeping count," she laughed softly.

"You've been keeping this a secret for that long?" Penny asked. "Wow... You're usually so bad about blurting everything out," she teased.

Ally flushed, sinking in her seat. "It wasn't easy..." she admitted with a small sigh. "But Austin and I wanted to be sure about this... about _us_, before we told anyone."

Austin nodded again. "People were either telling us that best friends falling in love was a bad idea or were telling us to hurry up and get together already, so we decided that if we didn't tell anyone, they couldn't have a say in the matter," he explained.

"Exactly!" the brunette exclaimed. "I mean, I knew I kinda liked Austin a little bit—"

"And I knew I liked her a _lot_," he interjected smoothly with a wolfish grin.

His comment made her falter and their mothers coo.

Ally blushed and glared half-heartedly at her boyfriend. "_Anyway_, we knew we kind of liked each other so we decided to just... go for it," she finished with a small shrug. "But we didn't want anyone saying anything or trying to influence us, so we kept quiet. Trish and Dez don't even know," she admitted guiltily.

Austin groaned and smacked a hand to his forehead. "And of _course_ Ally's parents walked in the night I decided to kiss her for the first time," he muttered with a roll of his eyes. "Typical."

Penny gave a small gasp and clapped a hand over her mouth. "That was your first kiss I witnessed?" she asked excitedly.

Ally blushed and nodded. "Yes, Mom, it was," she grumbled embarrassingly.

"Really... so you two haven't been making out behind my back?" Lester breathed, sounding absolutely relieved. "Because I trusted you two alone in that practice room," he said.

Austin shook his head and regarded Mr. Dawson with a very serious look. "Never, sir. I wanted us to be public before anything got... _physical_, so to say, but, uh, sometimes things don't go according to plan," he winced with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I would never want to break the trust you have in me, Mr. Dawson," he said sincerely.

The Moons beamed with pride at their son.

"Did you hear that, Mike?" Mimi asked softly.

"It looks like we didn't completely mess up as parents," Mike chuckled, looking over at his son fondly.

Austin shot his parents a sheepish grin and chuckled slightly.

Penny grinned and turned to her spouse. "I happen to think he's _perfect_ for Ally," she whispered with a firm nod of approval.

"He really is, isn't he?" Lester murmured as he watched Austin look at their daughter with nothing but pure adoration in his brown eyes, a soft smile on his lips. It made him nervous and relieved for his daughter when he realized that Austin had always looked at Ally like that, right from the very beginning.

The brunette smiled at her boyfriend, meeting his gaze with a similar look. "Mom, Dad," Ally whispered tentatively. "I _really_ like him," she admitted, not breaking eye contact with Austin as she bit her lip nervously.

Austin's smile widened at that. "Right back atcha, Als."

A flash from a camera immortalized the moment between the two teenagers and they jumped in their seats.

Ally blinked rapidly and stared down at her plate, a blush blooming across her cheeks.

"Mom!" Austin groaned exasperatedly, face palming.

"Sorry!" Mimi cried, sounding unapologetic. "You two are just so cute!"

Penny grinned and leaned in towards Mimi. "Can you email me that picture?" she whispered.

Mimi waved a hand dismissively. "Pfft! I'm having this _framed!_ I'll blow up a copy for you," the blonde promised with a wink.

"Even better!" Penny laughed excitedly.

"So everything's okay, right?" Ally suddenly blurted out. "That Austin and I are dating, I mean. You guys are all okay with it?" she asked, eyes darting around to meet all of the adults at the table.

Mimi and Penny nodded enthusiastically and a round of '_Of course! Of course!_' could be heard. Lester gave a smile and nod of approval.

Mike sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what you see in this boy, but he's incredibly lucky to have you," he teased with a slow smile.

"Thanks, Dad," Austin stated flatly as Ally giggled at father and son.

"Clearly, Ally's the better half in this relationship," Mike smirked.

"I know, Dad, I know," Austin chuckled. "She really is," he murmured with a soft smile.

"Aww," the ladies cooed as Mimi took another picture.

"Guys!" the teens sputtered, embarrassed by their audience.

The men looked at each other and sighed resignedly.

Mike held up his glass of water. "Here's to the first awkward family dinner of many," he smirked.

Lester chuckled and clinked his glass against Mr. Moon's. "The kids will get used to it," he grinned.

"They're gonna have to. I mean, look at who we married," he snorted, gesturing to their wives, although Lester could hear the tones of amusement and adoration laced through his teasing remark.

Penny was dabbing at the corners of her eyes with her napkin and Mimi was trying to convince Austin and Ally to pose accordingly and act adorable so she could take more pictures of them. The poor teens were getting redder and redder by the passing second, sputtering incoherent nonsense out of sheer embarrassment.

"Should we intervene?" Lester asked.

Mike shook his head. "Nah, let's just sit back and enjoy the show," he smirked.

Lester chuckled. "Sounds good to me."

"At the rate our wives are working, we're gonna be in-laws in no time."


End file.
